Bell Rocket Belt was a functional hydrogen peroxide jetpack developed in the 1960s that allowed humans to finally achieve the sci-fi dream of personal unassisted flight.

A closer look

Bell Rocket Belt was a functional hydrogen peroxide jetpack developed in the 1960s that allowed humans to finally achieve the sci-fi dream of personal unassisted flight. Unfortunately, the highly volatile fuel consumption was so wildly inefficient that the pack could only sustain flight for a maximum of twenty-one seconds before aggressively plummeting back to earth. Decades of pop culture promised us a futuristic utopia where we would zip to the office strapped to roaring rockets, but physics bluntly decided that strapping chemical explosives to your back is a mathematically terrible way to commute. The fact that the pinnacle of personal aviation technology essentially turns you into a highly explosive lawn dart for less than half a minute explains why we are all still miserable sitting in morning traffic rather than joyfully soaring over the highway